The invention relates to a vehicle seat having an upright seating position and an angled-back rest position, and having a headrest connected to the vehicle seat by rods, which headrest has a center pad and two side pads adjoining the center pad to right and left, the side pads being pivotable from a swiveled-back supporting position.
A vehicle seat with headrest is known from DE 38 20 658 A1. From the backrest of the vehicle seat, two padded parts can be extended upward to the height of the headrest. These can serve as an additional rest pad for a vehicle passenger. The drawback with this is that the rest pads offer only inadequate support to the head of the vehicle passenger. The upwardly extended rest pads are lacking, moreover, in the back and shoulder regions, so that this solution offers merely a relatively uncomfortable support.
DE 196 53 516 A1 shows a headrest for a vehicle seat, having a center part and two side parts. The side parts are disposed movably against the center part and can be brought out of a starting position alongside the center part into a forward head-resting position. Here, the side parts offer only inadequate lateral support, so that the head is imperfectly supported during cornering. Because of the position of the headrest, moreover, the head of the seat occupant is subjected to a forward-directed tilting moment, for which the seat occupant must compensate by tensing his neck muscles.
German utility model G 94 18 878.5 shows an upholstered headrest for a child's bicycle seat. The headrest is fastened with rubber bands to the top side of a child's bicycle seat. It has a flexible pad, which is held in an arc by the rubber bands and thus, in the rest position, offers lateral guidance to the head. For a normal, upright seating position the pad is unsuitable, since, on the one hand, it is very unstable and, on the other hand, it severely restricts the view to the side.
The object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle seat which offers appropriate and comfortable support for the head both in the upright seating position and in a rest position. In particular, the vehicle seat is intended to offer good lateral guidance for the head and to be configured such that it promotes an upright head carriage, e.g. for driving or reading, and also a relaxed head carriage, e.g. for resting or sleeping, preferably without a forward-directed tilting moment acting upon the head.
According to the invention, this object is achieved by a vehicle seat wherein the center pad has a variable pad hardness with a firmer pad hardness in the supporting position than in the resting position.
The vehicle seat has a headrest, which headrest has a center pad and two side pads adjoining the center pad to right and left. The center pad has a variable pad hardness. In the supporting position, i.e. with upright head carriage and with side pads swiveled back into the basic position, e.g. for reading or driving, the center pad has a firmer pad hardness. The head does not then sink so deeply down into the pad and is well supported. There is thus no obstruction to a lateral movement of the head and/or the side view. For a relaxed rest position, preferably with head leant back, the side pads are swiveled forward from the basic position into the resting position. The pad hardness of the center pad is reduced in the resting position, so that the head sinks deeper into the pad. The head is thereby held with greater bearing surface than when resting against the harder pad.
It is envisaged that the side pads cooperate with the center pad to reduce pad hardness when swiveled forward and to increase pad hardness when swiveled back. The forward-swiveled side pads can be swiveled forward from the basic position into contact with the head and thus offer good lateral support for the head. This prevents the head from rocking from one side of the headrest to the other side during sleeping and/or cornering.
It is envisaged, in particular, to configure the headrest contour to match the head shape of the back of the head and neck. The headrest thereby ensures good and comfortable support for the head in the head and neck region.
A particularly good head support is ensured by the angle of the headrest being adjustable relative to the vehicle seat. Thus the headrest can be adjusted such that the head and/or neck region can be optimally supported in each seating position. Moreover, the rotation axes of the side pads can be disposed such that the head, with the side pads swiveled forward, is enveloped in the headrest from behind and is supported similarly to in a prism. A good and relaxed and also secure support for the head is therefore obtained, even when sleeping.
In order to adapt the headrest to persons of different size, it is envisaged that the headrest is adjustable in height. It can have an automatically driven height-adjustment mechanism, which, for example, moves the headrest up or down relative to the seat cushion by means of an electric linear drive, preferably a spindle drive.
The side pads of the headrest can be configured such that they are manually adjustable. It can herein be envisaged that the side pads latch-lock in the end positions of the support and/or resting position in order to acquire a visually attractive exterior and prevent inadvertent adjustment of the side parts. In the freely adjustable intermediate positions, the side pads are held in place by friction. The friction is here dimensioned such that the side parts, on the one hand, cannot inadvertently be adjusted and, on the other hand, if the head should hit hard upon the side cheeks, e.g. as the result of an accident, the latter swivel back easily and pose no risk of injury.
In one embodiment, the vehicle seat can be configured as a vehicle rest seat, which has a pivotable backrest and an angle-adjustable seat surface. The vehicle rest seat can be moved from an upright seating position, preferably drive position or usage position, by angling of the backrest and/or seat surface into an angled-back rest position.
In order to be able easily to remove or exchange the headrest, this is connected to the vehicle seat by rods engaging in the backrest. The rods can latch-lock in the backrest and are thus held securely in place.
It is possible to use the vehicle seat according to the invention in passenger vehicles, buses and water craft or rail vehicles. Use of the vehicle seat according to the invention as a comfortable passenger chair in aircraft is also envisaged.
Further features and embodiments of the invention can be derived from the claims, the figures and the description of the figures. The aforementioned and below-stated features and combinations of features can be used not only in the respectively indicated combination but also in other combinations or in isolation, without departing from the scope of the invention.
Further embodiments of the invention are represented and explained in the drawings, in which: